Alberta came out on top of the study, which measured employment growth, productivity, unemployment, and other factors in each U.S. state and Canadian province. Saskatchewan scored the tenth place overall, while BC came in twelfth. No other Canadian province made the top-30.

“If we actually improved the characteristics of labour markets we would be among the top performing labour markets in North America,” explained the Fraser Institute’s director of fiscal studies, Niels Veldhuis, who credits the three western provinces’ booming economies for their current strong performance. “We would probably be No. 1. And that’s the message here for B.C., that we can be even better than what we have been in the last five years if we improve some of our characteristics.”

This could mean relaxing labour laws, reducing the percentage of employees working in the public sector, and reducing the minimum wage in relation to the average wage, Veldhuis said.

“All of these things have been shown by academic research to have negative impacts on labour markets,” he said, giving Alberta as an example of a free market leader. “They have lower unionization, they have less public-sector employment, they certainly have a much lower minimum wage relative to the average wage, and they have more balanced labour-relations laws.”

Although this cause is a pretty safe bet for winning public support, it reeks of unwanted government intervention in the economy, not to mention the fact that it lacks all logical purpose.

If you ban ATM service fees, the banks will either be forced to stop providing after-hours automated service, or levy another fee (or two) somewhere else. And much as we like to bitch and bicker about ATM service charges, at least they can be avoided, which might not be the case for whatever would take their place.

Personally, I could probably count on one hand the number of times I’ve paid an ATM user fee, since I always plan ahead and make use of my own bank’s facilities. I also choose to keep the minimum balance on hand so as to avoid monthly account charges. In fact, aside from the cost of printing cheques, I can’t remember the last time CIBC got a dime of my money.

If you want the convenience of visiting any bank machine in town, that’s fine. Just remember that the banks can and will ask you to pay for it, and there’s no reason why politicians should be expecting anything else.

“We’ve called (it) the peanut butter approach,” explained Glen Hodgson, economist and co-author of the report’s 144-page first installment. “You kind of spread it smoothly across the land, even though you could get greater benefits if you found a way to concentrate in particular areas.”

As a country, Canada needs to invest its resources more efficiently, the report argues, especially in relation to the education and training of highly skilled workers.

The report also discusses regional distribution of resources, criticizing the current system of equalization payments and funding for cities, which it says penalizes growth.

Equality “might be part of the culture, but look at the practice,” Hodgson said.

“Here, as elsewhere, Canada will have to abandon a cherished myth of equal treatment for all its institutions,” social scientist Janice Gross Stein reminds us in the forward to the Conference Board report.

What these people seem to be saying is that, although the principle of “equality” looks good in theory, there are some situations where it simply doesn’t work, and shouldn’t get in the way of practicality, efficiency, and fairness. This type of objective reasoning can be applied economically on a great number of levels, and shouldn’t be dismissed too easily in any genuine capitalist society.

Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, the suit alleges that the new phone’s name “constitutes false designation of origin, unfair competition and trademark dilution.” RIM is using this to seek an injunction against the sale of BlackJack devices in the United States.

It is true that the RIM and Samsung devices are targeting nearly identical markets, with both the BlackJack and BlackBerry Pearl featuring wireless email capability and built-in QWERTY keyboards. Both are offered exclusively by Cingular Wireless in the United States.

Despite the striking similarities, however, it’s very difficult to see how any one company’s trademark can extend to cover the word “black.” Both of the devices are primarily black in color after all, and I can honestly say that I didn’t draw any connections to the BlackBerry brand name upon hearing about the BlackJack’s release.

All things considered, I can’t see how RIM really expects to win this lawsuit. It seems more like an attempt to establish their brand superiority complex, and assert a “we were here first” kind of message than to pose a serious legal threat to Samsung.

Don’t get me wrong; BlackBerry is perhaps one of the most iconic brands in the world, and represents a great family of products, but there comes a time to draw the line between brand protection and immature paranoia.

Originally published at TeleClick.ca.

As a whole, web advertising currently accounts of about 6% of all media spending, and is expected to reach 8% sometime in 2008, overtaking radio promotion.

“It’s one thing for Internet ad spending to surpass relatively minor media such as outdoor or Yellow Pages, but it’s quite another thing to blow past radio, one of the big four traditional media,” commented eMarketer analyst David Hallerman on the current trend.

Web-based advertising has continued growing despite a number of tough challenges, including clickfraud, and seems destined to become the next great nexus of media spending.

Trusts have long been exempt from normal corporate tax laws, allowing them to pay out larger dividends to investors than other publicly traded companies. In short, they are… sorry, were… a good option for the mid-risk income-oriented investor looking for a steady flow of cash from their investment holdings.

Although one could argue that the tax benefits of income trusts have been, on occasion, abused by big corporations, the fact remains that these investment vehicles have become an important component in the Canadian investment economy, upon which many people rely for regular income.

That’s why I was a little taken aback when Stephen Harper’s Conservative government, made the sudden decision to impose heavy taxes on trusts, effectively rendering them obsolete for tax purposes. In the closely fought election battle earlier this year, the Conservatives promised quite clearly that they would not be taking this move, and that investors had nothing to worry about.

By doing a complete 180 on this issue, however, (and gaining the all-to-eager support of some minority parties in parliament), the federal government has betrayed the trust of Canadian investors, after wooing them into a false sense of security.

The government claims that income trusts are “damaging” the Canadian economy. If this is the case, however, why did Harper promise to protect such a dangerous and frightening type of investment in the first place?

Personally, I came very close to purchasing an income trust just a few days ago, but ended up opting for a (safe) mutual fund instead. Had I gone the trust route, I would have lost a significant percentage of my portfolio, as many Canadians did.

Although this issue isn’t quite enough to make me want to vote Liberal, it does cause me to seriously question the Conservative government’s economic policies. Overall, this was a very scummy and underhanded course of action that voters won’t be forgetting about anytime soon.

It’s interesting to see how so many PR firms have started directing their promotional efforts towards influential bloggers, in hopes of gaining online endorsements for clients’ products.

In my career as a blogger, I’ve received quite a number of PR pitches both through PR firms, and directly from companies. Although I always do my best to view products and services from a cautious point of view, I’ve published positive feedback on at least a few of them.

Overall, I would have to agree that the blogsphere is a positive thing for the PR guys, many of whom once felt threatened by this uncharted new form of online journalism. It serves as one more valuable outlet for promoters to get the word out about useful products and services, while providing an unbiased source of information for consumers hoping to make the smartest buying decision.

By integrating YouTube’s wildly popular online video platform with its existing services, Google is attempting to extend its highly profitable advertising business into a new and largely untapped medium.

eMarketer expects video-based online advertising to generate revenues of $640 million this year alone, and grow to produce $1.5 billion in 2010. If Google can grab the lion’s share of this growth, it will have scored a big victory over competitors like Yahoo, Microsoft, and News Corp.

The company bought this 1,900-square foot Menlo Park home from Susan Wojcicki, now a Google employee, who rented her garage to Page and Brin eight years ago.

Google’s five-month existence in the Menlo Park garage saw plenty of crucial work that eventually contributed to the search engine’s multi-billion dollar success today.

There’s no official word on how much the property cost, but similar homes in the area have sold for between $1.1 million and $1.3 million.

“We plan to preserve the property as a part of our living legacy,” according to Google spokesman, Jon Murchinson.

This Menlo Park home will now join the ranks of other famous Silicon Valley landmarks, such as the Palo Alto garage where Hewlett-Packard was founded in 1938, and the Los Altos garage where Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak created the first Apple computers.

Supporters of the new TLD; including Google, Microsoft, Nokia, Samsung, Ericsson, T-Mobile, and Vodafone; have created a number of design standards that all .MOBI developers are expected to follow. By customizing this “new internet” specifically for mobile browsers, the companies involved are hoping to make it easier for customers to access information (and buy products) on the handheld devices.

“In the past, using the internet on a mobile device presented huge obstacles for the consumer,” says dotMobi CEO, Neil Edwards. “We’re creating a link between mobile operators, internet content providers, and the millions of mobile users seeking a consistent, reliable, and enjoyable internet experience.”

Despite criticism from some analysts, the public release is .MOBI domain names is expected to trigger a “land rush” for valuable, keyword-rich domains. These largely unproven domains are still a risky investment, to be sure, but if the mobile web catches on, they could be a goldmine of untapped potential.